Social Media Marketing Firms Reap 10x Growth This Year Among Top 1,000 Web Retailers

CHICAGO, Sept. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- With online retail sales growing by 16% in Q2, according to the Commerce Department, more web merchants are heavily investing in e-commerce technology. Fully 87% of e-retailers recently surveyed by Internet Retailer say they will increase their spending on e-commerce technologies and services next year. Internet Retailer's latest research guide, the 2015 Leading Vendors to the Top 1,000, released today, demonstrates that the 1,000 largest web merchants in the U.S. are deploying more commercial e-commerce applications and services, particularly in rapidly evolving areas such as content delivery, web analytics and search engine marketing.

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The 2015 Leading Vendors to the Top 1,000 ranks the Top 10 e-commerce solutions providers in each of 30 technology and services categories—from affiliate marketing to web site testing and optimization—based on the number of their e-retail clients ranked in the Top 1,000 and the annual web sales those Top 1,000 clients represent. (The Top 1,000 rankings are culled from the Internet Retailer Top 500 and Second 500 Guides, which rank web merchants in the U.S. and Canada by annual online sales.)

While the number of clients for vendors ranked in the 2015 Leading Vendors to the Top 1,000 across all 30 solutions categories (some appear in multiple categories) collectively grew their retailer base 42% to 12,476 in 2014 from 8,991 in 2013, vendors in several categories grew much faster. Based on the number of Top 1,000 clients, social media marketing was the fastest-growing vendor category with a customer base that grew 1072% to 129 retailers in 2014. That compares with growth of 137% to 647 retailers for content delivery, growth of 115% to 420 merchants for web hosting and 91% to 344 e-retailers in search engine marketing. The fifth-fastest growing vendor category, fulfillment, grew by 76% to 2014 Top 1,000 retailers.

In all, 195 leading e-commerce vendors are listed with 45 data points per vendor listing that provide robust details on the web technologies and services they provide and the top e-retailing clients they serve. "For web merchants looking for prospective technology and services providers and for e-commerce solutions providers wanting  to assess their competitors' market penetration and prospect for new retail clients, there's no better e-commerce resource than the Leading Vendors to the Top 1,000," says Jack Love, Internet Retailer publisher.

The Internet Retailer 2015 Leading Vendors to the Top 1,000 guide is available in a 347-page, full-color digital version.

For research information, contact Mark Brohan, vice president, research and product development, Internet Retailer, at 312.362.9535. For media inquiries, contact Chaz McCrobie-Quinn, circulation manager, Internet Retailer, at 312.362.0107.

ABOUT INTERNET RETAILER®

The flagship brand of Vertical Web Media, Internet Retailer® provides comprehensive e-commerce business intelligence through print and digital channels, including a monthly magazine, several research guides, web sites, online databases and e-mail newsletters. Internet Retailer, launched in March 1999, is the largest monthly magazine in e-retailing with more than 44,000 subscribers. InternetRetailer.com is the most visited informational web site in e-commerce. Featuring industry news that is updated daily, the site attracts more than 205,000 unique monthly visitors. IRNewsLink, an e-mail newsletter of daily e-commerce news, is sent out every weekday to more than 53,000 subscribers, and features a weekly mobile commerce edition every Friday.

ABOUT VERTICAL WEB MEDIA

Vertical Web Media is a privately held, Chicago-based publisher that focuses on providing business intelligence for the e-commerce industry. Founded and led by journalists, the company aims to be the largest and most credible provider of objective business information on the market trends, technology, competitive practices and people shaping online retailing. Starting with Internet Retailer magazine, launched in 1999, Vertical Web Media has since introduced more than a dozen competitive data products and is now the largest publisher in e-commerce. Through its Internet Retailer® brand, the company operates a monthly magazine, two web sites, a daily e-mail newsletter, and 12 research guides—strategic content designed to equip e-commerce executives with the competitive data they need to help grow their online businesses.

SOURCE Internet Retailer